--- I studied the Blazers bench reaction after each of the baskets... Roy... Yao... Roy... in the overtime and it was amazing to see the dropped jaws (Jerryd Bayless)... and jubilation (Joel Przybilla)... and after the Roy rainbow miracle that won it, there was even a fan courtside who jumped onto the scorer's table. He looked ready to dance.

--- Aaron, who also studied the replays, wrote in to point out, "On the first Roy basket, the transition bucket to tie it with Artest's hand in his face, a replay showed the Blazer bench. Diogu smiled big, Bayless jumped on the court, Monty Williams hopped, and (assistant coach Dean) Demopoulos stood there like a secret service agent. His lack of reaction was awesome."

--- What Portland must do in the month of November is win 6-8 games and not make the climb back to the No. 8 seed impossible. The Blazers have to be thrilled with beating San Antonio and Houston at home in the first two weeks of the season. The real playoff chase is happening nnow, and not in March-April, if you think about it.